Facebook iOS App Hits 3.3, No iPad Version in Sight

Facebook held a mobile-centric event on Wednesday, where they announced a new update to their iOS and Android apps and dashed the hope of many by announcing there still isn’t an iPad-friendly version.

Facebook updated their iOS app to version 3.3 on Wednesday, following a mobile-centric media event earlier in the day where they announced that the new Groups feature would be coming to both iOS and Android, as well as improved Places tagging. The screenshot above is from the new version, with a new menu bar that allows you to easily post photos or status updates from your News Feed, or check in via Places.

The new Facebook 3.3 iOS update is live for at least those of us on the East coast, although the app’s description page currently shows an error about not being available in the U.S. store at the moment -- however, the app downloads and updates just fine.

Meanwhile, TechCrunch is reporting that one of the questions posted to Facebook executives Mark Zuckerberg and Erick Tseng today was, “Why no Facebook app for the iPad?” We all know that the full website works just fine on Mobile Safari, but with an iPhone/iPod touch app already available, it would seem to be a no-brainer to make it universal for optimal use on the iPad, right?

Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be in the cards.

“The iPad isn’t mobile,” Zuckerberg replied to the inquiry, which must come as a surprise to Apple and the millions of on-the-go users who already own one. Zuckerberg elaborated that Facebook loves working with Apple, but that “the iPad isn’t as mobile as a phone.”

It sounds more likely that Facebook will work on a web-based solution for all tablets, although personally we’d still like to see a universal app come down the pipeline in the future.

Meanwhile, iPhone and iPod touch users have a new update today and presumably Android users will be getting it imminently as well, which brings feature parity to the iOS version at long last.